Assassin X
by Goddamned Ninja
Summary: The Continent. Protected from unsolicited invasion by its guilds, it remains untouched by both the World Government and the pirates they fight. Follow the stories of the... largely uncontrollable guild, Assassin X and its resident ninja, as he and his compatriots discover exactly why reality has given up trying to make sense. Re-uploading w/ 100% less reader OCs, all one of them
1. Prologue: Part 1

Assassin X

Prologue – Begin

In the beginning… there was nothing… no air, no matter, no life… Time and her sister, Destiny were all that existed in this emptiness… with Time, the Destiny of the universe began to unfold… matter formed, life began, and a world started its lonely journey around its sun in the vast regions of space. Time and Destiny weaved themselves into the existence of everything. They will exist as long as a spark of matter remains…

This world, spinning slowly through time and space, came to a point when the Gods formed. An existence between existences, shepherding the souls of the dead through to the Beyond… or to Hell. The Gods of Life, Death, Chaos, Order, and everything that existed lived in their World Between Worlds, watching and protecting. And then, the Guardian existed.

The Guardian, the ultimate shield between Reality and Destruction, was blessed, and cursed, with everything. And suffered for it.

This is where we begin…


	2. Prologue: Part 2

**So, the old version was removed for accepting the reader's OCs. All one of them. That was only hinted at in two out of over 150 chapters. So, no more of that. At least it gives me a chance to go back through and edit/proof-read more of my early chapters.**

**Visit my deviantArt, Assassin-VariableX, for... stuff. Ramblings, artwork, that sort of thing.**

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Prologue 2 – Scattered, the Fourteen

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The pitter-patter of sandaled-feet echoed throughout the halls of the World Between, nearly drowned out by the shrieks of pain and terror. The young girl* ran down towards the antechamber, panicking and shouting for the Lord of the World Between. "Grandfather! _Grandfather!_ The Guardian is in pain! He won't stop _screaming!_" Chaos screamed as her touch shattered the antechamber doors.

Her appearance was that of a girl of about 8, with short, brown hair and tattered clothes from her recent discovery of explosives. The assembled Oldé Gods turned and looked at her gravely. The powerfully built man at the head of the long table gave her a long stare, before replying, "We know, Chaos. We've always known that something of this nature would occur for the child. He. has. too. much. POWER!" The last word was shouted with such authority the doors reformed themselves from their splintered remains. "Please stop destroying the doors," Order added wearily.

Chaos started stammering protests when she was promptly interrupted by a wizened old man sitting in the corner, surrounded by green mists. "Silence, you little twit! Back in _my_ day, girls didn't go around explodin' doors an' bustin'n on 'portant meetings by growned adults! Why, in the summer of…" Everyone ignored Pestilence because he really wasn't about to shut up.

Order turned back from glaring at Pestilence to address Chaos again. "Dear girl, Guardian is too young and inexperienced to—" "_and_ these twerps wouldnaw _think_ of being any powerfuler then us _Oldé_ Gods…" mumbled Pestilence from his corner in the rocky room. "—_control_ his power and is overloading. He—" "Was a she, last I checked," gurgled an infant to the right of Order. "— _probably_ doesn't have much time left to exist." At this, Chaos burst into tears and one of the walls collapsed on the still ranting Pestilence. He didn't stop.

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Back along the tunnels, in his special chamber, the Guardian slowly stumbled towards the open door. Through the haze of fear and pain in his/her eyes, a spark of fierce determination shone through. Stumbling along the tunnels towards Death's chamber, a room where the souls of the dead pass through, he/she mumbled, "I will survive. I know I can survive. I'll even be ripped apart to do it!" through gritted teeth.

Collapsing in the doorway of Death's chamber (dominated on one side by a large, computer-like device and three doorways, two leading onwards and one leading back to the World Below), he/she crawled towards the ornate door dominated by designs depicting life at its finest and tumbled out onto the top of a mountain. Before him/her, a short figure draped in a black cloak was swinging wildly at the soul of a mountaineer with his scythe, swearing loudly each time he missed.

Fresh waves of pain lanced through the Guardian's body, causing him/her to shriek in pain once again. Death flinched and slipped off the edge of the cliff. With one final scream of pain and defiance, the Guardian lurched upright, flinging his arms out wide. Around him, fourteen pillars of light lanced through the sky.

"Last becomes first, the end becomes a beginning, I—aargh!—end my existence to exist forever!" Finishing with words uttered in a language that would be hard-pressed to be recorded without a camera and some manner of smell capturing device, the Guardian's body shattered into fourteen children, all different from each other at their very core. With one last explosion of light, the children were launched from the mountain top to random spots on the Continent, the Fractured Lands. Scattered, the fourteen lived onwards…

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(* - Most Gods have an unusual ability to adjust what they look like to fit their specific path. Chaos, for instance, liked to be pampered and avoid most retributions for her love of making things stop existing** and so formed her body as that of a young girl.)

(** - More specifically, make one thing exist in multiple different pieces, preferably strewn over large distances.)

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**I guess I should also drop in on my _other _story, Ben 10: Continuity Break, and remove the OC application stuff _there_ too so it doesn't get taken down as well...**


	3. Intro Arc-Hit the Ground Running: Part 1

**Me: Oh, and before I forget - I do not own** One Piece** or any other copywrit materials that will be randomly included throughout the story. I do own my original characters, such as John Smith.**

**This is not a story you should read if you're looking for Straw Hats or many other canon characters. They will be included in a later arc but that's a while off yet.**

**There is swearing, dark elements, and bizarre-ness throughout the story. You have been warned. Chew on my limbs.**

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Introduction Arc

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Chapter 1 – Hit the Ground Running (Part 1)

—_Fifteen Years Later—_

In a run-down town on the very edge of the Wasteland surrounding the high mountain of the spearhead-shaped Continent, a young boy watched the entrance carefully, hoping for outsiders to appear so he could apply his trade. In his case, trade meant scam the ever-loving crap out of unsuspecting travelers. He soon spotted a possible candidate approaching the town entrance.

The young man, eighteen or nineteen years old, walked purposely up the dusty path to the town. He was dressed in jeans, a simple, red t-shirt, and a trench coat. Glasses perched on the end of his nose, in front of sparkling eyes the color of coal. His black hair was a tussled mess perched on the top of his head. On his shirt, hidden by the trench coat, was an insignia shaped like an elaborate X. "This… should be the place… Carage, to the east of Jennsohn, bordered on one side by the Waste… obviously the largest building here…"

The small boy ran up to the teenager, grinning happily, and thrust his tray of trinkets out at him. "Buy somethin' mistah! I got all _sorts_ of little charms and such like! Five dollars for one, nine for two, and thirteen for three. That's cutting my own neck, that is!" he added brightly. The stranger crouched and brought himself to eye-level with the child, looked him in the eye, and picked up a charm in the shape of a wolf's head, studying it.

"Well, kid, these are wonderful little trinkets, but I believe I may just prevent you cutting your own neck and continue on my merry way!" he said with a grin, and made to put the charm down and pat the child on the head. The teen then noticed a malicious smile plastered on his face and promptly tried to drop the charm. It didn't. More specifically, it was like someone had glued his fingers to it.

With a smug look, the child added, "Of _course_… the spell removal is fifty dollars more! Ha ha ha!" His laughter slowly petered out as the suddenly dangerous teen reached slowly and deliberately into the folds of his trench coat… and pulled out a business card which he held in the con's face. The boy's complexion promptly became equal to that of milk and stammered, "T-two dollars f-f-f-for the cah-ch-charm and thr-three-ee for th-the spell re-removalalalal."

Grinning again, the teen straightened up and quickly forked out five dollars, laughing when the charm unglued itself from his fingers and fell onto his waiting shoe. "Thanks, ya little midget! This'll make a grand souvenir!" Laughing again, he walked onwards, dropping the charm safely into his pocket while accidentally dropping the card onto the dusty road. It read:

Assassin X

Assassins for Hire – Oddjobs

John Smith

Scrawled along the edge were the words, "Goddamned ninja."

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The little con hadn't quite learned his lesson yet. As soon as the goddamned ninja had turned the corner, he promptly marched up to the next stranger to the town, a slightly out-of-breath young woman. She was dressed in jeans, a t-shirt with an image of a dragon running up the left side, and a white cape of sorts and was carrying a long staff with what seemed to be the dinkiest double-headed axe on the end. Her hair was a silver color, with a spike jutting out and down right above her nose.

She was muttering angrily about goddamned ninjas.

The boy didn't lose face and cheerfully stepped up to her, thrusting out his tray. But, before he even started his con game, the woman shot an angry glare at him, stopping him cold. "Honey, I am a bloody enchantress!*" she snapped at him. "If you don't think I can spot magic like that from miles off, you must be one unfortunate little fool." And with that she stomped off down the street in the same direction as John Smith. Though completely unrelated to the story, the little conman walked back to his home in a bemused daze and convinced his father that the straight path was all the rage these days. Less likely to result in death, too.

* * *

By the time the girl had caught up with John, he was lounging against the wall of a large fortress-like building. Seeing her, he waved cheerfully before saying, "You're really out of shape! You should work harder at thaAAAAagh!" He was sprawled along the ground now, after being hit over the head by the dinky axe. The girl pointedly stepped on him as she walked off around the side of the compound.

She was chalking a large circle on the wall when John stumbled around the corner. "Sa_ra_… What'd you hit me for? Did I say something wrong? Did I? I'm _so_rry. Could you stop glaring at me like that?" Sara turned from him and back to her circle, chalking in another line.

Stepping back, she suddenly looked around with a confused expression on her face. "Say, wasn't Mr. MuscleforBrains supposed to meet us here?" she asked, looking at her partner, who shrugged and made several mockeries of a muscle-builder.

"Okay, Sonny Jim!" she started, brushing chalk off her clothes. "Up, over, and try not to get lost… again. 'kay?" She chuckled, reminiscing about something. With a dry, sarcastic laugh, John jumped ten feet up the wall and stuck there with his specially designed gloves and shoes. He crawled carefully up to the ramparts, waited as a guard walked past, and then slipped over and disappeared.

Sara Wilson leaned against the wall beside her and settled in to wait. John, on the other side of the wall, was clinging to the ceiling of a long tunnel that ran along the length of the structure. It had been designed so that any unwanted visitors** would be caught in a deadly crossfire without the attackers being placed in any danger. It was useless, however, for defending against people hanging from its ceiling.

A pair of guards walked past under him. When they were a safe distance away, he dropped from the ceiling and landed silently on the floor. Keeping low, he dashed after them, leaping back up the wall right before another pair of guards turned the corner going in the opposite direction of the first two.

When the pairs of guards had continued onwards, he dropped to the floor again and stepped through a door into the main part of the house. This hallway, unlike the stone tunnel he just left, had plush carpeting, paintings all along the walls, various expensive urns and vases lining the floor, and the walls themselves were painted a horrible green-yellow color. It was the sort of hallway you didn't want to be in for extended periods of time. John quickly left through the first door he found, yelped, and rushed back out, muttering about yellow.

A sharp voice cut through his yellow-condemning rant.*** "Get a move on you utterly moronic lunatic! Let's get this done so we can get lunch and head back to the Guild!" Sara snapped at him through the com-piece.

"Aye, I shall continue on my way through halls of hideous paint and pointlessly fussy carpets! Onwards!" he replied, dashing off to find a different door, one that would lead somewhere less brain polluting. Outside, Sara gritted her teeth and let out a small sound of annoyance.

After dozens of hideously colored hallways, he finally stopped to ask for directions from his partner. "Sara… I think there's something wrong here… it's like some sort of bad parody of a fun house in here! There's strange, distorted mirrors in here…" John struck a pose in front of one of the mirrors and yelped when it became disturbing.

Sighing, Sara leafed through the papers she was holding, finally pulling one out. "You're probably one floor below the main building. Get up as soon as possible!" she said with a sigh.

John immediately obliged her by leaping up to the ceiling and cutting a hole through it… straight into the guard break room. Sara flinched when the sirens went off and sounds of an over-the-top battle reverberated through her head from the com piece.

Her partner had engaged in fierce battle with the guards and, by fierce, we mean a completely one-sided massacre in the ninja's favor. Wielding two modified katanas in either hand, he flipped and dodged his way through the mass of burly man-flesh, slashing at legs and arms, resulting in roars of rage quickly de-evolving into screams of pain and horror as the hidden blades slammed home into soft, yielding flesh. Occasionally something exploded.

Quickly dashing out into the hall, he dashed up the large staircase to his right, screaming at his partner. "Which way! ? Right or left! ? RIGHT OR LEFT! ?"

"Go straight!"

"Straight! ? That's a wall!"

"There's no wall on this map!"

"Well, I see a wall right in front of me and it looks pretty damned solid! I'm not gonna try to run through—igh!" He charged into the wall. He came out the other side without any problems. "Ah! A trick wall to prevent people from getting into this room! Containing the mark! And fifteen extremely dangerous looking people!" He stopped in his tracks and waved cheerfully at the bodyguards across the room.

He yelped as ten of the fifteen swung at various points on his body, specifically chosen for their incredible difficulty of avoiding. The other five ushered the baron of the town out through another door as two of their fellows were flung into pillars, another two lost consciousness thinking about how much wheelchairs cost, and three more made strange gurgling noises as shuriken took up residence half way through their necks. The other four were extremely wary now.

John paused and did a quick headcount. "Wait, there's one more of you guys then there should be," he noted, cocking his head as he considered why that would be. The conclusion was one he wasn't fond of and he stood up from his crouch with a sigh, folding away his swords.

The four guards quickly glanced at each other, extremely quickly in the case of one, seeing as the extra muscled, black-suited, masked guard put his head through the wall. The extra's shirt exploded off him as his upper-body's mass suddenly jumped from burly to disturbingly huge in the space of half a second. The man ripped his mask off and accidentally slammed his arm into John, throwing him into another guard and the both continued on into a wall.

John got back up.

The guard he hit didn't.

"You bastard! Jacob, we said to meet on the outside of the giant fortress thing whatsit! Not suddenly popping up in a situation that I might kill you!" John yelled at the older man as he cheerfully strangled the last of the guards.

Jacob was a relatively**** large man, with a massive jacket that usually covers his chest. Its arms had been ripped off so that the entire shirt didn't explode each time he increased his arm mass. He also had an extremely rich laugh, the sort you would find coming out of the mouths of jolly fat men climbing down your chimney in the middle of the night _without getting in trouble_. He had short and spiky hair which was the gray of age.

Companionably hitting John's back (throwing him forward five feet), he barked, "HAH HAH HAH HAHmmm!… yeah, I got here a whole lot earlier and decided to do things my own way! As in, sneak in and wait for the perfect time to ambush people, preferably you. These idiots would be the next best thing!"

"I hate you. Now, come on! Baron Shawanna is getting away! And it's all! your! fault!" The teen dashed off towards the hallway the baron escaped through and ran headlong into an invisible wall. It was like the illusion of a wall that marked the room's entrance, except almost entirely different.

Gritting his teeth against the harsh laughter behind him, his hand dove into another pocket and came back holding a metal orb with a button on the top. It was a red button. Nothing good ever happens when you press a red button. This button, for instance, caused things to explode.

The burly adult had disappeared. A few seconds later, the ninja landed on top of Jacob's cowering figure. A few seconds later, the wall disappeared, both behind a cloud of dust and smoke and from being blown to pieces. Dashing out from behind the pillar, laughing maniacally, John dashed through the cloud of smoke and down the hallway after the escaping baron. Jacob peered cautiously around his refuge and jumped when something by his feet beeped.*****

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* - (There are multiple classes of magic users, such as enchanters and enchantresses, wizards and witches, warlocks, magicians, sorcerers, sourcerers, and fairies (little bastards that they are).

** - (Unwanted visitors, such as peasants, politicians, lawyers, and mimes).

*** - (The rant followed a basic theme of, it's yellow, kill it. Among the yellow entities mentioned were talking sponges, pointlessly large birds, and yellow rooms with bizarre dots of not-color all over the place).

**** - (In regards to elephants).

***** - (The bombs John used gave people a chance to notice them before they went off, the cruel bastard that he is. This bomb looked just like the one which contrived to make a wall not a wall. A flag with the word "BANG!" on it popped out instead, accompanied by jaunty music).

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**Oh, yeah. The footnotes. They diminish as you get further along, as my writing style got... less stupid.**


	4. Hit the Ground Running: Part 2

Introduction Arc

Chapter 1 – Hit the Ground Running (Part 2)

Sara jumped when the emergency override on her com piece kicked in and John's voice shattered the inner calm she had found. "Sara! Sara, damnitSarawhywasyourcompiece offhurryupandgetinherethebar onisescapingweneedtocatchupa nd—do I hear a train?" A yelp reverberated around Sara's head but was quickly drowned by the sound of a train whistle. The enchantress smashed her elbow into the circle she had drawn on the side of the castle wall, creating a perfect hole straight through the wall…

John plummeted down the side of the cliff, spinning in midair to avoid rocks, trees, and the occasional mountaineer. Below him, a five car train was slowly pulling away from the station. Something about the train managed to make it extremely hard to look at properly. It wasn't that it wasn't there, it was just that your mind felt that it shouldn't exist and attempted to edit it out of existence.

It was painfully pink. It was the sort of pink you see when someone punches you in the face. It hurt to look at and succeeded in making the surroundings of wiry trees, stubby bushes, and scrawny elephants look like it was attempting to lean away from it.

John noticed he wasn't going to land on it.

He aimed an arm at the train and attached two katana to his shoes like skis; his arm shuddered as a hook-and-chain contraption launched from somewhere in the sleeve and gritted his teeth as the speed of the train dislocated his shoulder. He slammed down onto the train tracks and bounced along after the train, sparks flying out from under his feet.

His arm made threatening noises, mostly the sound of tearing flesh, as the chain linking the two parts of the contraption together slowly retracted, drawing him closer to the back of the train. He used his other arm to grab the handle of the door right as his swords snapped in two.

Sara dashed along the side of the train tracks, accelerating beyond normal human speeds using her magic while Jacob kept pace beside her by pulling himself forward.

"I can see the train!" she shouted to the older man and ducked as two blade points came flying at her head… and reversed direction to follow the magnetic trail she was leaving. "We need to go faster! We need to catch up! And I need to make these things stop following me!" she screamed in panic as one of the blades nicked her shoes.

Jacob looked at the train in a distressingly thoughtful way and snapped his fingers. "I think I can derail it from here… Maybe. I might hit the mountain instead… Well, might as well try!" And, laughing, he smashed a fist into the ground and created a fissure aimed directly at the rear car of the train.

Gritting his teeth in pain, John slammed his shoulder back into place and looked up at his surroundings. When lying on your back, there isn't much of a choice. Flipping to his feet, he took a better look at his surroundings and shuddered when he noticed he was surrounded by life-sized dolls of clowns. "Nobody likes clowns. Clowns are bloody creepy," he muttered, opening the door into the next car. It was full of guards. He shut the door quickly and climbed onto the roof.

He dashed towards the other end as the door below him slammed open and issued a small group of guards. The door on the other end of the car also slammed open and issued a small group of guards. This wasn't a smart idea. When standing on a narrow platform and dressed in cloaks and pointed objects, it is best not to be in groups of five climbing on one another, especially when the one on top gets kicked in the face.

John winced as the guards fell off to relative death and then disconnected the last two cars. He sighed with relief as the guards' cars quickly dropped away, ducked when one of them shot at his head, then yelped as the two cars were sent hurtling over the other three and smashed down on the tracks in front.

Jacob shouted in triumph then winced as the rest of the train smashed into the cars he derailed and caught fire as they flipped through the air. The people inside came flying out and continued to travel alongside the tracks. All in all, John Smith wasn't having a good day.

With the train cars flying over his head, however, he sliced the door in front of him into pieces with the remainder of his swords and charged at the panicking baron and ran a sword through the deceitful man's chest. It was an even more impressive feat seeing as his sword didn't have a point. The train caught fire and he was thrown through the roof.

Sara scanned the ground around and along the tracks for any signs of the ninja or, more importantly, the guy they had been paid to kill. John could had been known to survive explosives attached to his chest. She ducked as half a train car flew over her head.

"You dumbass! Don't just throw crap around like tha-!" She stopped abruptly when Jacob held up the baron's body. Well, half of it in any case. It was the half that still had John's sword stabbed through it.

"Well, we know Johnny-boy killed 'im before I did. Damnit, I wanted to get theaagh!" John brought both feet down on the man's head, grabbed his sword and hit the ground running, laughing hysterically. "I'LL KILL HIM! COME BACK 'ERE, YA LITTLE BASTARD!" the older man shouted as he took off after the annoyance. Looking on in shock and annoyance, Sara sighed and, taking a brief picture of the dead baron, took off running after the two men.

"Wait! Wait for me! I can't run as fast as you two!"


End file.
